New lineup on Oxnard council will seek level

It’s only two out of five council members, but in electing Carmen Ramirez and Tim Flynn, voters in Oxnard made a dramatic turn for the city.

For starters, ousting two incumbents — Andres Herrera and Dean Maulhardt, who combined have almost 30 years on the council — is incredibly rare in Oxnard.

The last time a council incumbent was swept from office was 14 years ago, when Herrera lost. After serving one term, voters forced out Herrera in an election that brought in now-Supervisor John Zaragoza. Four years before that, Herrera and former Councilman Bedford Pinkard unseated two incumbents, Geraldine Furr and Dorothy Maron. But those are the only council incumbents booted by voters in 20 years.

Beyond that history, the election of Flynn, who served on the council from 2004-08, and newcomer Ramirez marks an immediate change for the City Council. In the past two years, council members have rarely disagreed or split on a vote. It contrasts with Flynn’s last term, when he was on the losing end of many contentious 4-1 votes.

“I don’t see that happening again,” said Flynn, who ran for mayor against Tom Holden in 2008 and lost.

Along with Flynn, a high school teacher, and Ramirez, a public interest attorney, the new City Council includes: Mayor Holden, an optometrist who was just elected to his fourth term and has an additional decade under his belt as a councilman; Councilman Bryan MacDonald, a retired assistant police chief; and Councilwoman Irene Pinkard, a former Ventura County Community College District administrator with a doctoral degree.

Although Pinkard has served only two years on the council — the same as MacDonald — she has plenty of local political experience, having served on the city’s Planning Commission and as president of the school board. Her husband, Bedford Pinkard, also served on the council in the 1990s.

In accord with little dissent

Holden, MacDonald and Pinkard have worked well together and seldom split their votes, but whether that holds with the new council remains to be seen.

MacDonald said he didn’t see the current council marching in lock step.

“I think we didn’t always agree, some of us are more on the conservative side and like to watch out for the consequences of our actions when we talk about bonding and issues like that,” he said. “I’m not convinced that it’s not going to be smooth-running. I’ve know Carmen for years and think highly of her and I know Flynn.”

Flynn predicted a new dynamic with new alliances. He doesn’t see a repeat of the last two years with few dissenting votes.

It was only in the last year that the current council had its most significant rifts. One of those stemmed from an internal investigation into company contracts, which later ballooned into the Ventura County district attorney’s ongoing investigation into possible malfeasance at City Hall.

The council voted 3-1 — with Maulhardt opposed and Pinkard abstaining — against changing a construction contract to save $2 million on an administrative building at the site of the city’s new recycling water plant.

The other came over whether to meld the renewal of the city’s General Plan update with a proposed expansion of city limits to the north to include the proposed Jones Ranch housing development. The plan was to put all of that in front of voters. The mayor had been pushing for that to move forward, but backed off that idea.

But even during those discussions there was never the kind of underlying contempt sometimes seen during debates when Flynn was in office. Now things have changed, Flynn said.

“I’ll work with anyone,” said Flynn, adding that even when disagreeing on policy council relations don’t have to be contentious.

“I felt that I could work with Dean and he is someone I disagreed with on a lot of policy issues, but whom I thought was honest and fair,” he said in offering an example.

Willing to work together

Holden, who often disagreed with Flynn, said much the same thing.

“Look, we have some serious work ahead of us,” Holden said during a break from his optometry practice last week.

With pressing budget issues, a bad economy and a demand from voters for reform, there’s little time for bickering, he said.

But the newly elected members are coming in with a strong mandate from voters to push for change. Ramirez said she’d like to think that there isn’t anyone on the new council with whom she cannot find common ground.

“I believe in working together to get things done,” she said.

And while she said she’s disagreed with some of the votes taken by the current council, she believes there is agreement on some fundamental changes. She pointed to the need for transparency and the push for reform.

“You know, I don’t even know if we need to change policy or not,” Ramirez said. “We’ve got some good laws and policy and I think the issue is whether they’re being followed.”

The two new council members will take office after being sworn in at the City Council meeting on Dec. 7.